Preserving Software...

[subzero1970]

How do you go about preserving Software? Im due to receive a bundle of over 40 tapes and I've been told that one of the tapes 'doncaster powerbox' has not been preserved.

[5MinuteRetro]

I can’t answer your question but it seems to me that right up until your posting of this, "doncaster powerbox’ was a Googlewhack!

[subzero1970]

a googlewhack???

[5MinuteRetro]

a googlewhack???

Yeah. A Googlewhack. Perhaps a bit Web 1.0 these days, but pretty hard to find Googlewhacks now!

[subzero1970]

I've no idea what the term 'googlewhack' means!

[5MinuteRetro]

I've no idea what the term 'googlewhack' means!

I linked to the Wikipedia explanation. Basically, it describes a Google search for any two unique words that returns only one result. Searching for “doncaster powerbox” returns only one result. It’s really very hard to find Googlewhacks these days, and they’re destroyed almost as soon as they’re found because people discuss them - which affects future Google searches.

[subzero1970]

So the game is not well known then?

[PeterJ]

Hi [mention]subzero1970[/mention],

Thanks for offering to preserve titles.

I'm assuming you have a cassette player? One way is to play the sound into your ZPC and save the audio as a .WAV file. Then use this Python programme to convert to TZX.

https://pypi.org/project/tzxtools/

If you don't have the equipment to do this, and you have released software which is missing from the archive then I'm happy to do it for you and pay return postage (assuming you are in the UK).

I'm assuming the Powebox simulation is one of the following series, which although quite niche, it would be great to have.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/1 ... h_Powerbox

[Alessandro]

Hi [mention]subzero1970[/mention], if you are able to convert your tape to a WAV file but are unsure on how to make a TZX file out of it, please share it here through a file hosting platform like Dropbox or Google Drive and I'll convert it for you.

[subzero1970]

I have a capture card in my pc that can capture audio seperately so I can do that, once the tape arrives that is

[subzero1970]

I'm assuming the Powebox simulation is one of the following series, which although quite niche, it would be great to have.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/1 ... h_Powerbox

Yes, ive searched for it over the internet and found nothing for this particular one, I'll be able to tell you more when the cassette arrives next week.

[druellan]

By pure coincidence I was looking at those simulations not long ago and they are the kind of thing I love to find in the Spectrum. Hope we can preserve another one, thanks subzero.

[R-Tape]

Something tells me Ashley Greenup likes his trains! Nice to see another addition. Hope the cassette gives a good recording, but if not I can put you in touch with someone who might be able to polish it (possibly Gilby).

[+3code]

Something tells me Ashley Greenup likes his trains! Nice to see another addition. Hope the cassette gives a good recording, but if not I can put you in touch with someone who might be able to polish it (possibly Gilby).

The link http://www.traingames.com seems dead.

[R-Tape]

The link http://www.traingames.com seems dead.

There are loads of old author links that no longer exist. IMO they are worth keeping, as hopefully the wayback machine will have snatched them at some point. Here's train games.

[Ralf]

I could never make a head or tail of these train simulation games.
Anybody played them more?
What's the goal of them?

[richl]

Hiya. Just spotted this thread and realised that I'd got Doncaster Powerbox in a bundle of tapes that I got from a Cornish gentleman a couple of years ago. They were described as "ZX Spectrum Ashley Green Up, Recorded from Master Tapes" and each of the 16 tapes has two different titles on. I think the tapes are all C15's and on the ones I've done so far there's 3 copies of the each game per side. I think there were a few others in the bundle that are either MIA or even uMIA but since my filing system (ha!) is kinda in a mess at the moment I'm amazed that I even managed to this find this with "relative" ease...

https://www.mediafire.com/file/k9ypbvzu ... 9.zip/file

The tapes are somewhere in my spare room so once I've located them I'll check if there are any others that are missing or previously unknown and get back to you all if there are. It'd be interesting to compare this one with subzero1970's copy, especially if it has a proper inlay rather than just some handwritten jobbie like mine.

[R-Tape]

Hiya. Just spotted this thread and realised that I'd got Doncaster Powerbox in a bundle of tapes

Ta richl. This looks fine.

[mention]PeterJ[/mention] [mention]pavero[/mention] [mention]Einar Saukas[/mention] I'll add this one.